Jalandhar, October 17
Keeping in mind the ongoing festive season, Assistant Director of Factories, Jalandhar, conducted an emergency response mock drill at Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) Jalandhar Terminal, following the directions of Director of Factories, Punjab.

The mock drill started with the hooting of the emergency siren. To create the emergency scene, Tank number 15 was taken as the epicentre of the fire.

The fire was extinguished by using two dry chemical powder type fire extinguishers, foam and running water monitors. The adjacent tanks were cooled by running sprinklers.

Subsequently, another simultaneous emergency was declared by the assistant director on Tank number 17, which was successfully handled by the teams on the scene.

Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, Duarka Dass, Assistant Director of Factories, Jalandhar, said, “There are four major hazardous industrial units in Jalandhar and Indian Oil Corporation Limited is one out of them.

From time to time, we conduct emergency response drills to check disaster preparedness of these units.”

He said this was a full scale emergency exercise designed to be as realistic as possible. It was designed to test our emergency procedures, first response, fire fighting and rescue operations.

Chief terminal manager, IOCL, Jalandhar Terminal, Ranjan Shrivastav, chief plant manager, IOCL Jalandhar and BPCL and HPCL Location in-charges were also present on the occasion.

Chief terminal manager Ranjan Shrivastav expressed gratitude towards all the members present on the occasion and said, “IOCL will continue to conduct these emergency response drills from time to time to ensure the safety.”

Jalandhar, October 17
A 24-year-old youth hailing from Noorpur Jattan village in Kapurthala was reportedly shot dead by unidentified persons in Manila this morning.

Deceased Ninderpal Singh’s family members were today informed that the youth was going on his bike when he was gunned down.

The son of shopkeeper Jaswant Singh, he had moved abroad about a year-and- a-half ago to improve the financial condition of his family.

His relative Narinder Kumar said the Ninderpal was working as a financier and was on his way to make the daily collection when the incident took place and he died on the spot. — TNS

Jalandhar, October 17
On a call given by the Punjab Students Union, students in large number thronged the local Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall for a Doaba zone rally today.

Following a dialogue with the police and administration officials, the union activists postponed their plan to gherao the residence of Education Minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema as they were assured that solutions to their problems will be sought in a meeting with the minister on October 27.

However, the union threatened that if the dialogue did not prove fruitful, they would stick with their original plan of gheraoing the minister’s house and holding massive agitation.

Union general secretary Rajinder Singh said while the state government, on the one hand, was promising to take education to every home, on the other hand, it was implementing privatisation policies in education, which was robbing poor children of their right to education.

They said the government’s policies of fee hike, non-implementation of scholarship schemes, implementation of the semester system and denial of rights to their students as per the post matric scholarship scheme, were part of the government agenda.

The Punjab Government was formulating black laws to suppress the voice of the people, they said.

They said the implementation of the semester system in the universities was also overburdening the students with double fees and fines.

Union members said they would gherao the houses of the Chief Minister and other ministers if the government did not attend to the problems of the students.

Jalandhar, October 17
Hundreds of bank employees and officers, on a call given by United Forum of Bank Union (UFBU), staged a massive demonstration in front of the State Bank of India (SBI) main branch demanding early wage revision settlement. .

Addressing the gathering, Comrade Amrit Lal, convener, UFBU, Jalandhar, said the 9th bipartite settlement had expired, however, the wage revision for bank employees and officers was due since November 1, 2012.

He said despite the fact that almost two years had passed and several meetings had been held, the attitude of the government had been negligent and casual.

Threatening to intensify their agitation, Amrit Lal said on the call given by UFBU, five workmen and four officers’ organisations representing a total work force of 10 lakh bank employees and officers would observe a full day strike on November 12, 2014 and hold relay zonal strikes from December 2 to 5, to be followed by further strikes, including indefinite strike, if the demand of wage revision was not settled.

He said the government had offered 11 per cent enhancement in wages, whereas the union was asking for 25 per cent.

Comrade RK Gupta, secretary of National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE) unit of Jalandhar, condemned the irresponsible attitude of the government and exhorted the employees for a sustained struggle to achieve their demands.

The demonstration was also addressed by comrade GK Joshi, president, Punjab Bank Employees Federation, Jalandhar unit, comrade KK Khosla, vice president NCBE, comrade SPS Virk, comrade Balraj Sahni, comrade Bakjit Kaur, comrade HS Bir, comrade Lalit Chadha, comrade Dev Datt Sharma and comrade Dalip Sharma. — TNS

Jalandhar, October 17
To attract more customers, those running makeshift crackers shops at Burlton Park here have said they had reduced the cost of crackers by 15 to 30 per cent.

The shopkeepers had been setting up their stalls since the last two weeks. They have said the sales had been picking up as the festival of lights is drawing near.

Jalandhar, October 17
The foundation stone laying ceremony of the Jang-e-Azadi Memorial at Kartarpur by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on the coming Sunday has become a much-debated topic since the results of Haryana Assembly elections will be announced on the same day.

The event will also mark the sharing of a common dais by the leaders of the alliance who have remained on a collision course in Haryana.

Political observers have been eagerly waiting to see the reactions when the leaders of the alliance would meet all over again in Punjab and that too on the day when results would be declared.

Top political leaders and bureaucrats have been visiting the site almost every day to check arrangements since the last three-four days. While Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal paid a visit three days ago, Education Minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema was here yesterday.

The Jalandhar police have already deployed heavy security at the site on the Jalandhar-Amritsar road. The administration has been on its toes for the last few days.

The memorial is coming up at a cost of Rs 200 crore in 25 acres. The built-up area of the site will be 28,527 sq mt and it will be ready by August 2016.

The memorial will be marked by a 45 metre high building housing the statues of freedom fighters. The open spaces would house memoirs related to the freedom struggle.

There will be a Shaheed-e-Minar of 45 metre height.

It will have exhibition galleries, an auditorium, an amphitheatre for 500 visitors, a library and a movie hall of a capacity of 150 persons.

Jalandhar, October 17
Punjab Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema today said to prevent the inclination of students towards cheating in government schools in the state, the education board was taking strict measures.

Speaking at the zonal awareness event for the anti-cheating campaign today, the minister – who was the chief guest on the occasion – said the campaign started by the Punjab School Education Board in 2013 had started paying off good results.

Dr Cheema said parents, teachers, social organisations and society at large needed to get together on the issue.

Reacting to media queries on the demand for an amendment in the Right to Education Act, to re-introduce board examinations in Classes V and VIII, the Education Minister said resolution regarding this had been passed in the Vidhan Sabha and sent to the central committee but a decision on it was still pending.

The minister gave away prizes to students who won essay writing, mini-marathon and other contests held under the Nakal Virodhi Campaign.

He also released a CD and a book printed under the campaign by the Education Department.

PSEB chairperson Tejinder Kaur Dhaliwal, deputy director, NCERT-cum-convenor, anti-cheating campaign, Shruti Shukla, apprised everyone of the other activities to be held under the campaign. — TNS

Jalandhar, October 17
Taking a tough stand against the property tax defaulters, the Municipal Corporation today, for the first time, sealed two commercial buildings (showrooms) at Model Town.

Property Tax Department staff led by superintendent Maheep Sareen today went for recovery from 10 defaulters, including two residential and eight commercial.

While some owners who paid the amount on the spot were spared, two showrooms, including a readymade garment store and a footwear store, were sealed.

However, as these owners too paid up the amount later today, the showrooms were opened. The department was able to collect about Rs 2.25 lakh as property tax dues today.

The MC Commissioner said the drive would continue to deal with 10 defaulters every day till defaulters start paying on their own. Even as the property tax slabs for the financial year 2014-15 have been revised, the recovery for the previous year is being taken on the old rates.

Most commercial property owners in the city had not paid their dues as there had been a series of protests by the traders over the increased rates being charged from them.

With only 93,000 of the 2.56 lakh property owners in the city having paid up their property tax dues for the last financial year, the Municipal Corporation (MC) had announced the last amnesty that was till September 30.

The MC also announced that it would be tough as a new clause had been added in the MC Act, which empowered it to seal, attach and even sell off properties for the recovery of the dues.

The Punjab Government issued the orders in a notification on August 21, amending Section 138 of the MC Act. The copy of the same had been sent to the Municipal Corporations after incorporating the harsher clause for action, which could be taken against the defaulters after the due date.

The MC had, till March this year, collected only Rs 23 crore, equivalent to its house tax collections against a target of Rs 40 crore.

Jalandhar, October 17
Reacting to rumours that they have demanded the arrest of some of the students of Dayanand Medical College, the parents of Dr Supriya today said they did not want the arrest of any student.

“A section of people are portraying us as if we are opposed to students and want their arrest. There have been reports that students staying at hostels of the college are scared due to rumours regarding the demand for their arrest by us. Our daughter was a student at the college. Why would we demand the arrest of students? This defeats the basic purpose of our struggle,” said Dr Balwinder Singh, DHO Jalandhar.

“Our main demand is that the guilty professors be arrested. The issue is being given a new twist by a certain lobby to distract from the central issue. We are for students, not against them,” he said.

Dr Supriya’s parents also alleged that they were not happy with the pace of the SIT’s investigations into the case.

They repeated their demand for a proper checking of the CCTV footage in the case and finding the lost pages of her diary.

Meanwhile, her parents have said they would continue their agitation until the demand for arrest of the guilty professors is met.

Dr Supriya committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan of a hostel room at Dayanand Medical College, Luhdhiana, on September 29.

Her parents have alleged that she had repeatedly told them that she was being harassed by some professors for the last six to seven months.

Jalandhar, October 17
Lovely Professional University (LPU) and IIT-Kharagpur organised an entrepreneurship awareness drive (EAD) on LPU campus today.

Officials from the IBM also mentored students through workshop on how to convert their ideas into softwares using IBM platform.

The event was attended by 2,500 students. LPU Chancellor Ashok Mittal asked students to “be job-providers instead of being job-seekers”.

Keynote speaker Jaiprakash Singh Hasrajani apprised students about important ways to bridge the gap between today’s education and tomorrow’s professional world.

Chairman of HarVa XPO, Ajay Chaturvedi, told the students that real growth of the country and the world lies in rural areas. He alerted students not to just overlay thoughts and patterns from the developed nations but to innovate. — TNS

Jalandhar, October 17
More than three quintal of adulterated sweets was destroyed by teams of the Health Department at an establishment in Khambra here today.

After receiving a tip off, the teams raided the building in which the adulterated sweets were stored in unhygienic conditions. Dhoda, milk barfi and boondi laddoos were being prepared at the place.

About 20 kg of the barfi found on the occasion were carrying fungus and emanated bad smell. Most of the sweets were simply stacked on dirty floors, which were full of flies.

DHO Balwinder Singh said, “We destroyed and buried three quintals of sweets. The conditions prevailing at the establishment were very dirty and the state of the sweets found on the occasion was so bad that it would have adversely affected the health of people who might have consumed it.”

As many as four samples of sweets – dhoda barfi, milk barfi and boondi mixture were taken on the occasion. The health teams also visited the home and two shops of the person running the establishment but they were found to be locked.

The four samples have been sent to a laboratory for tests. Meanwhile, the teams also took four samples of cheese, curd, mint chutney from food shops at Ravidass Chowk.

This month, health teams have taken 61 samples of food and milk products. Officials said the reports of all the samples would come in three weeks, following which, action would be taken.—TNS

Jalandhar, October 17
A three-day Diwali festival was inaugurated today at Virsa Vihar by Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav. An exhibition of handmade products organised by students of various schools and colleges was the centre of attraction in the festival.

The artistic works of student, including murals, lamps, candles, candle stands, paintings, furniture, bags and jewellery were in high demand.

The festival will conclude on October 19. — TNS

Jalandhar, October 17
There were no scenes of rapturous applause that could charge the players, no cheers for the enthusiastic cheer leaders and no spectators to zoom the cameras on in the 18th week of the World Kabaddi League (WKL) that commenced at Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium in the city today.

Although, the players put up their best show by exhibiting excellent raiding and defending skills, the organisers failed to attract crowd for the much-hyped tournament, backed by none other than Sukhbir Badal, the Deputy Chief Minister and the chairman of the WKL.

The most embarrassing thing for the WKL organisers was that Lahore Lions failed to turn up in the league due to delay in their visa approval.

When the first match between Punjab Thunders and Royal Kings, USA, began at 5:30 pm, there were hardly any spectators.

However, as the game progressed, the momentum seemed to build up a little, but by the end of the first game, the whole stadium looked empty. The cheer leaders faced the toughest time as the cameras were mostly focused on them to avoid showing the empty chairs in the stadium.

They were taken to different locations in the stadium to give a fresh feeling to the TV spectators. Police officials were also seen relaxed with the security arrangements due to a tiny number of spectators at the venue.

Raman Raheja, chief executive officer (CEO), WKL, said the week was planned in Jalandhar, following a superb response the city gave to the last leg held in the city.

“The city is a synonym for sports. Everyone is crazy about kabaddi here. So, we had decided to hold the event here. However, it seems that due to lack of publicity, we failed to attract much crowd. But we hope to see the momentum building up in the next two days,” said Raheja.

The city will witness five matches in the next two days. Lahore Lions, who have played the least number of matches (10) so far, has to play 11 matches in the league.